autobahn +4 cylinder honda = kein problem

after a few rounds of procrastinatory pac-man, the suitcase packing is done and we're stoked to be heading to gay par-eee tomorrow. 

it's our first "real" road trip so after we drop Sky off at camp, it's 7 hours on the open road. 

the weather, which was -10 celsius a few days ago, has warmed up and all the powdery snow is this mess of sludge -- mmmm shave ice. 

if the weather stays warm, the only thing i'm really concerned about it the autobahn. people talk about how cool it is to be able to go as fast as you want (and about how great german drivers are -- ok, i think that's mostly germans who say that) but molly and i feel like straight up grandmas out there. 

even on the little 2-lane country roads (ah, john denver) people are riding our ass, passing us, squeezing in and narrowly avoiding a head-on collision. 

on the autobahn we're pushing 90 miles an hour in the slow lane and cars pass us so fast our car shakes. but we're not worried. 

we've got a thermos full of coffee, a bag full o' snacks (including Triscuits, the official snack of the buddymollys (TM)) and Rick Steves' French phrasebook. 

we'll get to paris when we get there, and probably won't have any german drivers behind us. 

the vas deferens

While standing in the snow today, overlooking the small town of Pottenstein, unable to feel my toes snuggled in my boots under two (count em, two!) pairs of socks, I started to reflect on the vast difference of Hawaii and German living.

Now, we moved, (quite willingly), to Germany nearly 3 months ago. We left blue skies, warmth and sunshine for gray clouds, coldness and a flaming object in the sky that only reveals itself on special occasions. (I think it’s the same sun, but I can’t be certain).

We welcomed this change, this opportunity to travel Europe, learn Deutsch and lose ourselves in the culture that is German. And we are learning, quickly, that Hawaii is far behind us.

We went from ocean to snow, sake to beer, poke to pork, aloha shirts to drendels, Hawaii-time (anywhere from 15 minutes to two hours past the mentioned time) to German-time (on time. not a minute before, not a minute after … on time.)

The relaxed, casual setting of Hawaii is replaced with the precise, practical notion of Germany. Things make sense here and it’s refreshing. Things ceased to make sense in Hawaii, and it was refreshing.

In the 3 to 4 years Jeremy and I lived in Hawaii, respectively, our bodies, minds and souls acclimated to the weather, the lifestyle and the aloha spirit. In the 3 months of living in Germany our minds and souls have acclimated to the lifestyle, the “prost” of friendship and the adventures to come. Our bodies have yet to catch up…

start us up (again)

Seriously now, folks, does it really take a month to get this thing started? Yes, we moved here almost 3 months ago and communication with the "non-Germans" has some scant to say the least -- let's just say we've been busy; sometimes that has meant we were hitting our local thrift store, sometimes we were out of town, traveling a bit further.

We've definitely got a bit of catching up to do, so be on the lookout soon.

Guten Tag!

Hallo and welcome to our blog. As much as we're personally against forms of mass communication, we're more against sending similar emails to a host of peeps with updates and the like, so here we are ...

we moved to bavaria more than a month ago and are still getting settled. our german is absolutely embarrassing (except for our go-to "sprechen zie englische?" and we can order beers like true germans "Wir hattern gehrn zwei Beire, bitte"...) but we're determined to get better and perhaps by the time you visit we'll be able to make jokes about you behind your back.

check in every once in a while for updates on our adventures here, and if you find yourself in europe, grab your lederhosen or dirndl and swing by -- schnitzel's on us!

tschuss,
the buddymollys